Welcome To ACW Woodcuts

WOODCUT PRINTSis what this site is about. I invite you to look at the
prints I made, what inspired me and how I made them.

Following the
menu there are pages about creating woodcuts made by and large along the
traditional Japanese style called “Moku Hanga” with some modifications here and
there sometimes. All steps are illustrated in various ways and will even make
more sense when actually making one yourself. As well as I can, I try to show
with photos and text while discussing some of the woodcuts how to make such a
Moku Hanga woodcut.

Other than
that I keep myself busy with painting, drawing, etching and drypoint.

The carpenters workshop on the plantation was one of my favourite places to hang out when I was a child.

Yusouf was the carpenter always busy making the many pieces of
equipment needed for work in the field or the factory. He showed me how
he did things and we would swap the dutch and malay names for all the
tools he used. It was just great to sit there between all the
shavings and woodcurls and enjoy the smell of it.

In fact, a lot of the
tables I made are based on the design of the beds baleh baleh he made for the workers. Anyway I guess that's what launched me intowoodwork.

photography has always been a big part of my life. As a teenager I would take photo's at school parties and the occasional wedding
celebration and even a local football team's official photo, all to
finance the next packet of photo paper, film, chemicals or equipment.

Edouard Jean Steichen, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Ansel Adams, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Breson just to name a few, were my heroes and I would drink in their images. Maybe that's why I still have a preference for black and white, for its expressiveness, the separation of tones and its contrast.